Love of the Game
by manderNoranges
Summary: In their final year, the seventh year Gryffindors are determined to win it all. The stakes are high within the game and in the world outside Hogwarts. How hard will everyone be willing to play and at what cost?


It was a rainy morning as drops splattered on the streets outside King's Cross station. Immersed in thought, Lily Evans stared at an apparently unimportant wall with her eyes partially glazed over. A few people gave her looks of pity, mistaking her for a young girl fending for herself in the busy station. To Lily, however, things were much different.

In the letter Lily received for Dumbledore offering congratulations on being selected as Head Girl, she was also asked to watch the barrier to aid any first year students who were unfamiliar with its workings. Lily purposely arrived half an hour earlier than necessary so nobody would be left stranded outside the platform. Apparently, no one else had the same thoughts as she did, leaving Lily alone to pass the time.

Lily looked around while daydreaming about her final year at Hogwarts. Quite conveniently, these plans glazed over the weight of the impending NEWT exams and focused on the more pleasant things. Contently, she focused on the Hogsmead trips, free periods, quidditch games, and what came after the quidditch games if Gryffindor won: celebration parties!

Eventually now, people were beginning to straggle through the barrier. The first cluster was a group of seventh year Slytherins including Snape and Malfoy. Thankfully, Lily spotted them before they spotted her and quickly knelt in the opposite direction under the pretence of tying her left shoe.

It seemed to be a general trend for those in Lily's year to turn up early. Several more, including Alice, Molly, Marlene, Remus, and Sirius wandered past her as they passed through the barrier. Marlene and Molly passed with a wave while Alice stopped to inquire briefly on Lily's summer before following them onto the platform. Sirius paused to say hello before heading towards the train to save himself and his fellow marauders a carriage. Remus stood with her as they chatted contently about the upcoming year. The conversation was broken into bits divided by whenever Lily found a first year in need. She was tackled by her best friends, Aubrey and Elise before they set off to save a compartment. Five minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, they too crossed through the barrier with James Potter running after them.

"Whew, close one Moony. Though I was going to miss the train. Haha! Now _that_ would have been a story to share," James laughed.

Lily glared icily at him, fighting with herself to contain any and all snide comments. It was a battle that she quickly lost.

"Oh, how incredibly mature of you Potter! The only thing you must be on time for is Quidditch. Thank god Dumbledore made Remus Head Boy and not you."

A pair of confused stares met this as Lily's face acquired a faintly pink tint. In a panic, she tried to pick out what she had done that would have caused them to look at her like a person with multiple heads.

"Ermmm… I'm not Head Boy Lily," Remus muttered.

"Umm, _what?_"

Lily made a mental note to bang her head a few times on the left post at the foot of her bed when she returned to her dormitory. Stupid, stupid stupid. She paused from her mental lashing, if it wasn't Remus, then who? Lily looked up to see James looking at her with a 'yes it was me but no its not my fault' sort of look. Her patience broke. '_Not true_,' her mind screamed.

"Potter? C'mon, you couldn't have thought of anyone more believable then that? You disappoint me."

An emotion flashed through James' eyes that Lily saw and promptly dismissed as she flounced onto the train as it blared its one-minute warning whistle. The idea was ridiculous. All Potter did was play pranks and get detentions. That was it; the summary of James Potter's Hogwarts career. True, Remus did get in trouble, but at least he had some positive qualities about him. He at least cared for his schoolwork!

Angrily, she stomped her way down the corridor until she found the compartment that she was looking for. Lily threw the door open with such great force that she caused the glass to rattle in its panes. Huffily, she threw herself down into an empty window seat and glared moodily out of the window.

"Well, no point in asking you Lily. Your holidays must have been wonderful right up to the moment you sat down!" Aubrey trilled cheekily. A large smile played on her thin face as her gray eyes sparkled mischievously. Her dirty blonde hair that reached just past her collarbone was in her face and she swept it behind her ear. She was sitting Indian-style across from Lily in the other window seat with her 5'1" frame not taking up much room.

"Aubrey! Can't you save the sarcasm for when we get to Hogwarts? Lily, my dear, what could possibly have distressed you so much already?" Elise soothed, with her own hint of sarcasm. She was 5'4" and currently taking up the rest of the seats on the opposite side of the carriage. Despite her playfulness, her deep brown eyes were soothing as she fiddled with her long chestnut locks.

"It was Potter," Lily cried in aggravation, "they made _him_ Head Boy!" Aubrey and Elise traded looks.

"That sucks," Aubrey scoffed and raised her eyebrows.

"I'm sure you can make something work Lily. Dumbledore wouldn't have paired you two up if he didn't believe you could work together peaceably."

"This is awful. Can you imagine? ME working with HIM… how is this supposed to work? We can't stand each other, but I hope your right Elise. Dumbledore has better know more then we do that proves that we won't murder each other. This is our final year and therefore not allowed to suck."

"Let me help you," said Aubrey, "First off, you have to go meet with the _lovely_ Mr. Potter and inform the prefects of their duties. Secondly, you get to use your new power to make sure that none of the Marauders find their way into our compartment." It was a well-known fact that Aubrey could be just as hot headed towards the Marauders as Lily was although at times she was better at controlling it.

"Tempting as that is, you know I'm not supposed to abuse my powers. I probably should get going though. Wish me luck that I don't mess up and/or accidentally-on-purpose strangle Potter."

Lily was closing the compartment door when she heard the reply, "We hope you don't blow it big Lily!" ringing from inside. Rolling her eyes, Lily finished closing the door and strode purposefully towards the front of the train. Sliding the Prefects Compartment door open she glided inside. Heads turned to stare at her causing a faint flush to enter her cheeks and a small, embarrassed grin sneak its way onto her lips. Lily paused to greet a few of her peers that she had previously tutored or had just been generally friendly with.

Her happy nature quickly dropped off once she saw Potter waiting for her to join him at the front of the compartment. Instantly, Lily's pleasant nature dropped as she made her way to his side, shooting him daggers every few steps. Surprisingly, however, the Prefect meeting did not go as Lily had expected. Potter actually contributed. True, it was not as much as he could have, and true, he left some holes that Lily had to fill in, but it was a start.

The meeting was over and Lily was mingling with the prefects, reminding the more forgetful ones of their House passwords and the password to the Prefect Bathroom when James intercepted her.

"So, how'd I do?" he inquired sincerely. Lily was shocked at his tonality and was about to civilly reply when Potter felt the need to continue, "At least now we know that all of the _girls_ at least will know what to do." An arrogant grin danced on his face and his eyebrows wiggled slightly.

"Ugh! You just can't act like a normal person for _one minute_, can you Potter? You know, I was going to say something nice along the lines of 'You did well, I'm impressed' but you had to go and act like a prick again. So you know what? Forget it! You probably won't last until Christmas as Head Boy anyways!" Turning on her heel, Lily stomped back off to the compartment with Elise and Aubrey inside.

The rest of the train ride passed uneventfully as Lily, Aubrey, and Elise lounged about in their compartment with a prefect checking in every once in a while. They all took turns playing Exploding Snap and Wizards Chess. When the snack trolley came around, they pooled their money and purchased a nice sized selection of sweets, enough to last them until the first Hogsmead trip. As they munched, Elise talked about her thrilling summer in France and all of the places she went. She had a muggle mother and wizard father and Lily found it enticing how Elise got to see both sides of the country. Aubrey gibbered about her adventures with her muggle friends. She was a pure blood but her parents were open-minded and encouraged those friendships unlike many pure blooded families would. Lily bemoaned the hassle that settled over her house as plans for Petunia's wedding was finalized and scheduled for that winter.

When the Hogwarts Express reached the station, Lily set about patrolling the masses of roving students, directing any wayward first years to the boats by the lake. After the masses had been abated, Lily tottered wearily to the carriage that her friends were supposed to be holding for her. She found it easily, it was the only one left, and slid gratefully into an empty seat closing her eyes and leaning her head back in a tired fashion.

When she opened them again her weariness vanished as her senses leapt to attention. The carriage did not contain just herself and her friends, as Lily had assumed, but the Marauders as well.

Lily glared at Aubrey and Elise until Elise broke and cried, "I'm sorry Lily! All the other carriages had left and they can't walk up to the castle, they'd be late."

Lily grumbled a bit in defeat as the horseless carriage went in to motion. Glaring at everyone again, she finally settled for staring moodily out of the window. Hogwarts came into view as they rounded a corner and a small gasp could be heard from Elise. It was a beautiful sight with the windows lit up and the crescent moon shining in the sky. The remainder of their voyage was relatively silent despite the occasional groaning from Aubrey who, being the smallest of them all, received the 'pleasure' of being wedged between Sirius and Remus with Potter on the other side of Sirius.

They were the last people to arrive at the Great Hall before the sorting began. Ducking into her seat, Lily thankful to see it was a full five seats down from where the Marauders were huddled. She twiddled dully with her napkin as all of the first years from Allens, Marie to Zephos, Derek were sorted into their houses, listened sadly to the same cryptic warning Dumbledore had given them the year before when all of the tears and sadness began, and ate hungrily when the food appeared on her plate.

As the feast ended, Lily, Aubrey, and Elise shuffled along the extensive trek to the Gryffindor Common Room. They found their trunks waiting for them at the foot of their beds. They didn't bother to unpack as that was the main purpose for the following day, when they weren't chalk full of delicious Hogwarts food which they had missed over the summer. Donning their pajamas, they crawled into their beds leaving their used robes in a heap on the floor to be dealt later. Several 'Goodnight's were murmured and they drifted easily into deep slumbers.

Just before Lily succumbed to the cool comfort of her downy quilt, she smiled to herself. She was back at Hogwarts for her final year. Things were bound to get interesting and this was just the beginning.


End file.
